Supreme Court could decide in two weeks to take up health care

The U.S. Supreme Court could decide as early as two weeks from now whether to take up the titanic legal battle over President Obama's health care law.

The court revealed today that the first of the challenges to reach the Supreme Court will come before the justices on Nov. 10th, during one of their regular weekly conferences where they decide, in private, which cases to hear. Legal experts are nearly unanimous in believing that the court will agree to hear the health-care issue during its current term, but there's no deadline for the justices to act on whether to do so. If the court agrees in November to take up the health care issue, it would probably be argued in March, with a decision by late June.

The Supreme Court could decide as early as two weeks from now whether to take up the titanic legal battle over President Obama's health care law. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

If the court agrees on Nov. 10th to take any or all of the cases, we could hear that day, or we might hear the following Monday when court orders are typically announced. But contentious cases are often discussed several times before the court gets around to taking a vote on whether to grant them, so it could take a few weeks before we know.

The five cases ready for the justices to consider ask the court to decide these questions:

- Did Congress exceed its powers in requiring that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, and, if it did, must the entire health care law fall or can parts of it survive?

- Can a challenge to the insurance requirement be brought now, before the law goes into effect in 2014?

- Do new Medicaid requirements in the law impose excessive burdens on the states?